MOUSELING.net

100 Questions for Webmasters

A blank is available here. Have fun!

1. Please introduce yourself.: My name is MOUSEcky and I'm unemployed for now. My blood type is O+ and I've been accused of many things over the years including but not limited to "wanting to be gay".
2. How long have you been making websites?: Since... 2019? *sweats*
3. And what got you into the hobby?: I don't really remember. I probably saw a cool webcomic or something when I started, but I got serious about the hobby after seeing some really cool Visual Kei fansites.
4. What kind of website are you most interested in?: Any website that can teach me something new or make me reflect.
5. What's your workflow? Do you plan your websites out thoroughly or do you come up with the design as you go along?: It depends on the site. For a website I plan to have lots to see on, I'll think of what I want to put on it, come up with a design, add some more content, and flip flop between the two until I feel satisfied. For a smaller page I'll just write everything in plain HTML and slap some simple styling on after.
6. Please link to your biggest inspirations.: When I was starting out, there was a site called Lovely Designs which I was massively inspired by. It's gone now.
I like suboptimalism's writing,
Mark Irons' Homepage, also for the writing,
poltern.net's design,
and finally Scape for giving me the push to make websites at all.
7. What's your favourite part about making websites?: I love how versatile HTML is. I love that you can do anything with it, and I love that just because you can, it doesn't mean you should. I like being able to convey my thoughts.
8. And the thing you struggle with the most?: good design
9. Do you keep the same layout on all of your pages? Or do you use different ones?: I'd say its overall the same, but in practice it's all super different. I just love to style new pages...
10. How confident are you with CSS?: I love it! I'd say I'm great with it!
11. Do you know how to correctly use <dl>?: Finally, I do.
12. What is your favourite HTML element?: <dl> LOL
13. If you're making a new web page from scratch, what is the first thing you do?: First I'll consider the content. Then I'll figure out how I need to present it most effectively.
14. Do you know JavaScript?: nope, but Dr. Google does LOL
15. How about PHP?: only <?php include $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/header.php'; ?> LOL
16. Does your website have a theme that you stick to?: Vaguely. I love the main colour palette I've landed on, at least.
17. Are you more focused on content or design?: Content these days, but I can't help loving design
18. Do you own a domain name? If not, would you ever want to?: i own nine of them as of the time of writing... *sweats*
19. What do you think of nostalgia-focused or "retro" websites?: Depends on whether they actually have something to read/look at. I hate aesthetics with no worth, especially because I used to create such websites
20. Is your HTML valid? Do you even check?: I'd like to hope it is. But to be honest I'm too lazy to fully check...
21. What are your opinion on buttons and banners?: I think we should invest in different sizes. I do love the Japanese banner standard of 200x40!
22. What do you think of button walls in particular?: Not at all a fan
23. If you started over again, would you make something similar or completely different?: Completely different design, completely similar content.
24. Are you envious of other people's websites?: too much
25. What text editor do you use?: Visual Studio Code
26. Why do you use that one?: Convenience & GitHub integration. I used to use it for the live preview before I learned to do it from the terminal.
27. Do you host your image files on your web server, or on another host?: On my own server. Any other way is unsafe.
28. This might not be relevant to you, but what's your opinion on the Neocities vs. Nekoweb debate?: It's all the same, despite the users acting like it's not
29. How much server space would you estimate your main website takes up?: The files for this one say like 350MB... *sweat*
30. Do you keep local backups of your files?: Absolutely.
31. Do you prefer simple or highly visual websites?: In the end, it all depends on the website's individual goals, right? I like a visual website when that's the goal, but a visual website needs something to read, too. A more simple website is best if you're looking to convey a lot of information at once, though.
32. Do you stick to certain colours? Do you do that on purpose, or is it your subconscious?: I do and I don't. It's on purpose when I do actually stick to the site's theme lol
33. Have you ever thought about quitting? Why?: Absolutely. I didn't feel like I was doing very good, I felt burnt out, I didn't have much to offer. This hobby gives me life, though, so there's no way I can quit
34. Do you have many webmaster friends, or is it a solitary hobby?: I have a handful, but in the end, it's a hobby for my own enjoyment...
35. Do people in your real life know about your website?: Absolutely. They admire me for it, which gives me an ego boost
36. Do you update your website very often? How often is "very often"?: I'd say so. Weekly-ish when I'm not obsessively posting something new on the daily.
37. And the overall design, do you change that much? Why or why not?: Not anymore. I really really really like what I have, and I don't think many improvements could or should be made for now.
38. Is your website more you-focused, hobby-focused, or outside world-focused?: Everything-focused, but I guess this one is most "me-focused". My art, my world, and so on...
39. Do you do web design professionally?: nope
40. If not, would you like to? And if you're comfortable answering, what do you do for work?: God no... I wanted to when I was in high school, but now, I think I'd die... I'm currently waiting for my course to start; after that, I'll be a student looking to go into library work.
41. Do you communicate with people by email very much?: As much as possible. I love email.
42. Some people reject social media and use websites as a replacement. Do you keep social media outside of your website?: I wish I didn't but I don't have enough real-life connection to ditch social media for the time being. I spend a lot of time on certain alternative sites, though, rather than pouring all my data into mainstream ones.
43. How about instant messengers? Do you use a mainstream one like Discord or Telegram? Or something like Matrix? Do you avoid them?: Discord and Telegram. And WhatsApp. And LINE. And...
44. Do you listen to music while you work on websites? If so, what kinds of artists?: Absolutely. Nerdcore techno gets me to work, but Japanese New Wave and shitty Visual Kei gets me through the day.
45. Do you keep everything you make on one website, or do you have more than one?: I split it all up.
46. On a similar note, do you keep to one topic on your site, or many?: Many topics on this site, more specific topics on others, although it's still varied.
47. Do you present your real self, or at least try? Or do you construct a persona on purpose?: A mixture of the two, by instability more than choice
48. Have you ever made a good friend thanks to your website?: Indeed.
49. Are you happy with the way HTML and CSS currently work?: Very happy. I don't know what improvements I would want.
50. What are practices that you think people should avoid?: See here
51. What about under-utilised practices, or things you think people should do more?: See here for the time being, while I prepare my next project
52. Do you use a lot of semantic HTML? Or are you guilty of generic structure?: Semantic HTML is like my lover.
53. Do you consider different browsers?: Vaguely... but not really. Good, clean code works in every browser, and I'd like to imagine my code is good and clean.
54. Speaking of, what's your preferred browser? Convince your readers why they should use it.: Mozilla FireFox. Really, you should use LibreWolf or a fork, but I'm lazy. It's good because it's not Chromium, for one.
55. And what OS are you on?: I'm typing this on a Windows computer. I also have computers running Debian GNU/Linux and FreeBSD.
56. Do you have a strong opinion on that, or do you just happen to use it?: I think that everybody should try different operating systems, but being a Linux crank is not for me. Every OS has its strengths and weaknesses. I would love to learn the benefits and drawbacks of MacOS one day.
57. Are your websites mobile-friendly?: Mobile-neutral
58. What are your thoughts on autoplay?: hate it because nobody knows how to utilise it
59. What are your thoughts on webrings? Are you in any?: I only like them when they actually link sites with similar content. Regrettably, I'm in a few.
60. Do you have any web shrines? What do you like to see in that sort of page?: I dunno, do I? I like a comprehensive and compelling introduction that makes me want to learn even more.
61. Are your websites "cliche", in your opinion?: A little, but I consider myself a bit unique, too
62. What is your ideal website? Are you striving for that, or for something else?: A website that can teach something. I'm striving for something in between that and a website you'll never want to leave
63. Are you an artist? Do you draw or design your own assets?: I am. My site's assets aren't drawn by me, though.
64. What are your favourite resource sites?: MDN web docs is good, but for graphic resources, I have a whole page for this
65. Is there a habit you just can't get away from no matter how hard you try?: overuse of deprecated HTML
66. What's your biggest advice for a new webmaster?: Please, for the love of God, have at least ONE thing to say before you start making your website. And don't copy any old code you see without understanding it. Read up on documentation.
67. Do you keep all your styling in CSS? Or do you hard-code some?: CSS, unless it's extremely page- or element-specific
68. What do you think of frameset layouts?: Not the biggest fan to be honest.
69. How about table-based layouts?: This question triggers a PTSD response. I used to be guilty of these... but there's no excuse to use them anymore now that the humble CSS grid exists.
70. Do you subscribe to the ideas of "one-column", "two-column" and "three-column" layouts? Do you use any of these?: I don't think about layouts in these terms anymore. I use whatever suits the website. Usually two-column, if it's a website like this one.
71. Do you spend longer on the HTML or the CSS?: I go back and forth. Maybe it's a 40/60 split.
72. Have you ever made a page with no CSS? It's useful for your thoughts.: I have. I love it, but a max-width is necessary with screens this large.
73. Do you ever find yourself making layouts with nothing to put on them? Or do you only make layouts when the need arises?: I do :-( which is why I started offering site templates.
74. Would you consider yourself a beginner? Or advanced? Somewhere in the middle?: I think somewhere in the middle, but I'm very confident in my HTML skills. It's like a second language... well, it is a markup LANGUAGE...so...
75. Do you have a habit of looking at the source code of websites you visit?: Absolutely. I grin when I see a band's website is clearly written by a human and not by Squarespace. Squarespace would never properly format and neatly annotate the CSS!!
76. How did YOU learn how to make websites?: W3Schools and lots and lots of copying old sites!! I don't recommend it. Copy some newer sites instead, okay?
77. Do you ever force elements to do things they're not supposed to?: sometimes *grin*
78. Thoughts on floating elements?: Useful when used correctly. Nobody uses them correctly.
79. When you're sizing stuff, what do you use first? Do you use px, em, %, or something else?: Unfortunately, i'm a px warrior.
80. Do you have a favourite font?: Times New Roman
81. Would you run a website with another person? How would that work?: I guess so. Maybe a collective of sorts? I'm not sure, but if we tried hard, I guess it could work. Maybe something where we both write different articles.
82. Do you surf the Web to find new personal websites very often?: I used to a lot more often than I do now, because I was in high school and all social media websites were blocked, and I paid no attention to the majority of my classes
83. Do you bookmark other people's websites? How would you feel knowing someone else bookmarked yours?: Absolutely. My bookmarks folders are getting out of control, in fact. I would feel a little embarrassed, but honoured.
84. What do you want people to be most impressed with when they see your website?: The design, but also the depth of knowledge I have. I'm not delusional enough to start talking about how I know way more than someone else, but I think that I have a wide variety of knowledge that isn't readily available for most people, so putting it in one place is important and valued. Of course, this is with my fansites for my favourite bands in mind. I hope people also enjoy my "voice".
85. Are you interested in technology outside of websites? Do you collect?: I collect computers, by mistake
86. How often and for how long are you online?: All day every day (too much, too much)
87. When it comes to your website, who is your target audience?: Anyone who's out of left field, or perhaps trekking their way through left field
88. Have you ever been interested in XHTML?: Not interested in using it, but it's curious that one website I visit uses it, and I want to know its benefits
89. Do you program in general? Have you ever written a program for use with or on your website, not counting simple JavaScript?: No and no. I want to learn C and Ruby and JS, but I'm awfully lazy.
90. Speaking of programs that help you make websites, what do you think of static site generators (SSGs)? Have you ever used one?: I like them. The things I was doing were too complicated for my own SSG, though. If you're going to set up an icon system, a moods system, use HTML instead of MD, and so on... please don't use an SSG.
91. Do you keep a hitcounter? Why or why not?: I do. It's interesting to see what draws people to me at what times.
92. Do you frequent forums? Which ones?: I used to, but the one forum I regularly used recently disappeared
93. Do you write your page content directly into the editor, or do you prepare it elsewhere, like a text document or a Word document?: Directly into the editor...
94. Do you think you appear cool to others? A more accurate answer now: do other people ever say you're cool?: No. Yes.
95. Are you embarrassed of your old work? Have you ever deleted everything out of shame?: SEVERAL TIMES
96. Would you close down your website if you couldn't update it, or would you leave an archive?: I'd leave an archive (until I became too embarrassed of it)
97. Do you reveal a lot about yourself on your website? Or are you more secretive?: I reveal a lot about myself. You would probably know my exact location if you did some quick thinking.
98. Are you willing to reveal who your best online friend is, and/or if they have a website?: Someone I met long ago now thanks to a blog post I made on an old website. No website for now.
99. And do you optimise the images on your website?: My art, at the very least, and I've learned not to be scared of jpegs
100. We're out of time! How do you feel after answering 100 questions? ....other than exhausted.: Accomplished.